


Prop you up

by Icie



Category: Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-18
Updated: 2015-04-18
Packaged: 2018-03-24 15:49:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,191
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3774454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Icie/pseuds/Icie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A quiet scene post game timeline.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Prop you up

**Author's Note:**

  * For [laughingpineapple](https://archiveofourown.org/users/laughingpineapple/gifts).



Jowd paints now, and that's fine - expected, even. But every time he picks up a brush, Cabanela's eyes are drawn to his hand, the way his fingers grip it like a feather using the lightest touches to transfer paint from brush to canvas. When Alma passes by she coos and compliments Jowd - as she should, he's getting good - half taking it back with a laugh and dotting a dab of paint from his pallet to his nose, calling him _her_ masterpiece. Cabanela tries to do the same in a different style, by leaning in too close to Jowd’s canvas and telling him how he can see the heart he's put into it at this distance, then grinning and giving him a sidelong glance and continuing with a comment about leaving some of his heart back for his wife.

They do this often, and today, it's down at the beach, on a weeklong break away from their lives. The weather has to be commented on, because it changes the style of trip; it's hot and humid with storm clouds bubbling in the distance.

"Looks like rain," Jowd says, adding another streak of grey-purple to the underside of what will become a cloud on his canvas.

Alma laughs from under her wide-brimmed sun hat as she sits with her book in her hands resting beneath an umbrella that isn't necessary with the clouds drifting overhead. "Be careful, dear, all your lovely work could be washed away, and you'd have to start again tomorrow."

Jowd smiles like she's the sun. It's a smaller smile than some, but more real, he's amazed that she can exist - a feeling Cabanela empathises with. "How can you know I won't just give up?"

"Old friend, when do you ever give up?" Cabanela asks before Alma can make her own rebuttal.

"Oh, plenty of times. I'm terribly spineless." He adds dashes of colour left and right, but his canvas is only getting darker and more gloomy.

"Such drama, dear. You know we're here to prop you up when your spine gives way."

He booms with laughter which covers Cabanela's mimed tip of a hat to Alma and her wink in return.

They have him covered.

\----

Rain trickles down the windows and Jowd can't help but feel he should have timed their getaway differently. The rain falls straight down but there's only so much an umbrella allows you to do, no matter what Cabanela claims.

"Step away from the window, and retract your brooding, old friend. Alma put her pretty little hands on a Monopoly set and we can't delay a lady from delivering us our asses on a platter, can we?"

"Sometimes I think you pay more attention to my wife than I do," Jowd says as he claps Cabanela on the back, obediently stepping away from the window.

He does wonder sometimes, how Cabanela manages to be happy tagging along with the two of them, and then that thought drifts into whether Cabanela _is_ happy under his charming grin and over-the-top actions - right this minute he's moonwalking into the other room where Alma is placing fake currency in piles, ready to drive the two of them bankrupt with her hands folded in front of her and lips smiling but unrelenting.

His darling goes easy on him and Cabanela: it takes twice as long as usual for her tap the last of their money into even rectangles and fold up the board.

"You are merciless, my dear," Jowd says and leans over to kiss the corner of her mouth.

"I've seen sharks with kinder smiles than you," Cabanela says with a bark of a laugh that doesn't sit quite right as his eyes never leave Jowd's own.

"I wasn't aware that you spent much time in the company of sharks to be able to offer insight into the matter." Alma nudges Jowd’s leg and he adjusts so he can loop his hand around her waist. She always sits on her knees with her feet tidy and together, while he stretches out, legs splayed and open.

Cabanela's expression flickers for less than an instant as he looks at Jowd's hand on Alma's dress. He stretches, loose and wide as he rises in one fluid motion. "I'll leave the two of you alone, shall I?"

"Oh no, please sit down, this is your holiday, too," Alma insists, posture unchanging but a muscle in her waist tightens under Jowd's hand.

The flicker returns and Jowd catches his eye but he drops back down, boneless like a cat. "Sometimes I feel like you sweethearts want a third member in your tango for two." If Jowd hadn't known him for so long, the pulsing vein of sincerity running through Cabanela's words would pass him by.

Alma grows more rigid again and Jowd shares a glance with her, she hasn't known him so long but she's clever as a fox, so it's possible...she smiles, sweet as sugar. "I wouldn't be opposed. You know we care about you very deeply."

Cabanela jerks back like her words are charged with electricity as Alma turns to Jowd.

"Isn't that right, dear?"

Jowd clears his throat, and his hand tingles as he squeezes it in place on her hip. He hopes she knows what she's doing. "Can't say I've never thought about it, no."

\----

Her boys are tense like they're pulled tight with puppet strings, but neither is backing down, and she wouldn't love them so much if they were the type to run away once they've realised how they feel and what needs to be done.

Jowd swallows, and she knows he thinks it's a smaller gesture than it is. She moves to rest a hand on his knee and pats it gently.

She smiles softly at Cabanela. "I think it's fair to say that we love you." It's so nice to voice that thought out loud and she makes sure there's no hesitation as she does, Cabanela reads too much into things sometimes, and she would hate to spook him having come this far.

"Fair indeed," Jowd says with a nod.

Cabanela is all drawn up, sitting straight and looking confident but only to people who don't know him as she and Jowd do. He's looking for an angle, a way to find fault with her words and Jowd's gentle confirmation.

"Don't think it's much fair to fool around with married folks in love." There's something under his words, as there so often is, it's easy to decipher this time and she rises up from her knees to lean forward over towards him. Jowd lets her slide away from his hand though he keeps it lingering until the last moment.

"That doesn't apply when we're in love with you as well, silly," and she presses her lips to his.

His eyes slide closed and it's as chaste a kiss as any first kiss but he doesn't pull away, he's expecting her to draw back first but she doesn't, instead shifting their lips together and cupping his face with her hands.

Jowd booms with laughter. "I think I should have been painting something else all this time."


End file.
